1999: Kazumoto Endo - While You Were Out

Who says noise can’t be fun? Because “fun” perfectly describes the sound of Kazumoto Endo’s While You Were Out, a record that feels like a great realization of the first two decades of Japanoise as it had been growing into a large music scene. Endo’s level of creativity and enthusiasm, frankly, make a lot of similar artists sound boring in comparison. It’s no surprise that when C. Spencer Yeh released his primer of Japanoise last week he chose to end his mix with Endo’s “Itabashi Girl.” His music acts like a swan song for a very niche group of music that expanded into a far wider audience once the new millennium started.

The great example to start with is “Shinjuku Kahki Pants” which (like many of the best parts on While You Were Out) warps sampled pop music into a mountain of noise, while retaining the form of the original sources. Distorted loops will constantly change up and reveal themselves as a disco groove, or a drum fill from a rock song will dart and disappear before you know it. The most thrilling and funny (Endo’s wonderful sense of humor pops up all over this record) moment comes when all of the cacophony disappears and from the silence a little harpsichord melody dances into your ear. A smooth bass line comes with it, followed by a Japanese girl delicately laughing, and right as your thought process manages to form “what the fu…” − BAM we’re pulled back into another blast of pulsing distortion. The first time I heard it I couldn’t help but laugh and find it weirdly charming.

“Itabashi Girl” remains Endo’s most memorable and loved song, by taking that same bait and switch to a gleeful extreme with his expert sampling. Endo cuts up an obnoxious disco loop endlessly, constantly interrupting it with his dense waves of distortion, but always returning back to that same repetitive loop. The call and response grows more frantic, and as the sample keeps returning you begin to question what has more value. Endo’s sections are certainly atonal, but there’s variety, incredibly original timbres, complex rhythms, and a liberating sense of musical freedom against the same glitzy hook repeated ad nauseam. It’s a cool idea, sort of, but the conclusion of the song reveals Endo not just as another great noise artist, but a true innovator and genius of the genre. The two sections which were separated begin to overlap, and melt into each other. Eventually the disco and the noise are all the same, all equal, and as the song grows louder and denser and builds and samples of shouting girls grow in speed and volume… everything cuts out and we hear an orgasmic declaration to “MOVE YOUR BODY!” And it clicks that that’s exactly what this song, this “harsh noise,” has been making you want to do the whole time. It’s becomes not about what type of music has more value but that all music, sound really, can be ugly, stupid, beautiful, clever, funny, and touching often all at once.

It apparently took Endo some time to actually get into the noise scene. According to one bio written about him, he enjoyed it but found the recorded albums boring. Though his opinion did change eventually after hearing certain albums (thanks Merzbow!) that belief comes across when listening to While You Were Out. This record sounds like somebody who is restless, the same way artists from Charlie Parker to DJ Sprinkles’ on The Midtown 120 Blues were restless, and knew the music around them was so much more. Endo’s record, in his incredibly tiny discography (this is arguably his only studio album), shows an artist working without any boundaries and having a really fun time doing it. It remains an absolute peak for Japanese Noise.

DeLorean

There’s a lot of good music out there, and it’s not all being released this year. With DeLorean, we aim to rediscover overlooked artists and genres, to listen to music historically and contextually, to underscore the fluidity of music. While we will cover reissues here, our focus will be on music that’s not being pushed by a PR firm.